Years ago, high purity water was used only in limited applications. Today, deionized (Dl) water has become an essential ingredient in hundreds of applications including: medical, laboratory, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, electronics manufacturing, food processing, plating, countless industrial processes, and even the final rinse at the local car wash.

Anyone and everyone who is responsible for operating and maintaining a swimming pool or spa has to test, monitor, and control complex, interdependent chemical factors that affect the quality of water bathers are immersed in. Additionally, aquatic facilities operators must be familiar with all laws, regulations, and guidelines governing what these parameters should be.

Water is essential for life. It is part of the environment, being used in industrial processes and available as tap water. To secure the safety of water that is daily available, the amount of necessary microbiology tests to comply with regulatory requirements are increasing and are heavily relying on quick and accurate answers to confirm the identities of a broad selection of important micro-organisms.

Boilers and cooling towers share two major water related problems: deposits and corrosion. As steam is generated by a boiler or water evaporating from a cooling tower, dissolved minerals are left behind, increasing the concentration of these minerals. Additional minerals are introduced via the water added to makeup the water lost to steam/evaporation. Eventually, the minerals reach a level (or cycle) of concentration that will cause either loss of efficiency due to scale or damage from corrosion. This level can be determined by the Ryznar or Langlier indices and correlated to a conductivity or TDS range. Most people recognize problems associated with corrosion. Effects from scale deposits, however, are equally important. For example, as little as 1/8` of scale can reduce the efficiency of a boiler by 18% or a cooling tower heat exchanger by 40%!

Problem: Nitrate, the most stable form of nitrogen in water, is found in both ground and surface water and originates from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Due to its high solubility in water, nitrate is not filtered out from groundwater like other contaminants. Removing nitrates from source water is important as elevated levels in drinking water can cause serious health effects when ingested.

Hydrocarbons in municipal water supplies, including fresh water and desalination systems, are commonly limited to less than 1 part per million. Surface water from rivers, lakes, or the sea with marine traffic, nearby pipelines, or regular flooding can be contaminated by hydrocarbons. Freshwater treatment systems can be damaged by hydrocarbons or allow them to pass through undetected. Desalination systems using reverse osmosis (RO) membranes can be irreversibly damaged by the presence of hydrocarbons. Continuous monitoring of water source intakes can prevent system contamination and subsequent damage. Accurate, low maintenance monitoring systems such as the TD-4100 XD and XDC have been protecting water intakes worldwide for over 20 years.

The textile manufacturing industry encompasses many and diverse processes that rely heavily on the use of water, energy, chemicals, and other resources. Wet spinning, sizing, desizing, scouring, bleaching, mercerization, dyeing and printing are just a few. Monitoring and controlling the pH, TDS/Conductivity/Salt Concentration, ORP (REDOX), and Temperature of the aqueous solutions used in these processes conserves costly resources, controls quality, and reduces the amount of pollution that must be treated before discharge of effluent wastes. This can be done manually with handheld instruments or automatically with in-line monitor/controllers.

Modern growing practices include scientific evaluations of soil, water, fertilizers, diseases, etc. While some tests are best performed by a laboratory, others can be easily conducted on location, saving time and money. Three tests in particular, EC, pH, and ALKALINITY, can reveal valuable information about water quality, soil salinity, and fertilizer concentration. MyronL Company’s portable AGRI-METERS provide you with a simple, fast, and accurate means of testing these parameters.

Now for the first time you can measure ion levels in drinking / tap water, rivers and lakes using one probe and one set of calibration solutions. We have probes specially tailored for environmental testing. Our Environmental probes measure Chloride, Ammonium and Nitrogen or we have a total nitrogen probe measuring Ammonium and Nitrogen. Each probe can be calibrated in our unique calibration solutions allowing you to calibrate all sensors simultaneously and take measurements in drinking or river water. Probes are also available in our standard four or six ion combinations and can be custom packaged upon request.

Keeping the water in our lakes, rivers, and streams clean requires monitoring of water quality at many points as it gradually makes its way from its source to our oceans. Over the years ever increasing environmental concerns and regulations have heightened the need for increased diligence and tighter restrictions on wastewater quality. Control of water pollution was once concerned mainly with treating wastewater before it was discharged from a manufacturing facility into the nation`s waterways. Today, in many cases, there are restrictions on wastewater that is discharged to city sewer systems or to other publicly owned treatment facilities. Many jurisdictions even restrict or regulate the runoff of stormwater — affecting not only industrial and commercial land, but also residential properties as well.

Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you

Subscribe to our eBulletins

Join our growing community of environmental professionals who are currently subscribed to weekly newsletters, product alerts, job alerts, and our monthly event updates and article newsletters. Stay up-to-date with the global environmental industry. Sign up for one or all of our free newsletters and alerts today.